The Peel detective

A day of concerts, a commemorative album and a specially recorded single are planned to celebrate the life of John Peel - but what were the albums closest to his heart? Jon Dennis goes in search of the ultimate Peel playlist

Analyse this ... John Peel revealed his favourite albums to the Guardian in 1997 but he kept us guessing as to their significance. Photograph: PA

In 1997 the Guardian asked John Peel to list his top 20 albums. Though he freely regarded these kinds of lists as "terribly self-indulgent" - and may well have chosen a completely different 20 if you'd asked him a week later - he was nonetheless happy to oblige.

Yet he wasn't asked to provide any comment as to why he'd made the selection, a tantalising silence that got me wondering: why were these albums significant to Peel? What is it about these records in particular that touched him the most?

So I trawled my record collection, the internet - and in the case of album number 10, the memories of his close friend Andy Kershaw - to provide some answers. Here's what I came up with.

1. Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band: Trout Mask Replica "If there has been anything in the history of popular music which could be described as a work of art in a way that people who are involved in other areas of art would understand, then Trout Mask Replica is probably that work," said Peel in 1995. He first heard Beefheart in California, and it was a revelation: "It was like hearing Elvis for the first time," he once told Saga magazine. "I reeled out into the Hollywood night just knowing that nothing would ever be the same again." Back in England, Peel was an early champion of Beefheart, even chauffeuring the group on a provincial tour. He continued playing them to the last, and traces of Beefheart can be heard in latter-day Peel favourites such as PJ Harvey and the White Stripes. "It's always irritated me that people label him as weird - it was a kind of super-reality," he said.

2. The Velvet Underground: The Velvet Underground and Nico Brian Eno once said that only about 250 people bought the first Velvet Underground album, but everyone who did went out and formed a band. Including Eno himself, who heard them for the first time on the Peel show in 1968. Peel played them in the very early days of BBC Radio 1 even before he had his own show. He can be heard here singing the praises of the group in a slot on the Pete Murray show.

3. The Ramones: The Ramones Billy Doherty of the Undertones remembers hearing the Ramones for the first time on Peel: "He played the full side of the first Ramones record - we suddenly felt we weren't alone. We may have been stuck in Derry with seemingly no future (man!) but the world suddenly got smaller, friendlier and full of possibilities. That's what music does for you and that was exactly what it continually did for John Peel. He recognised that the essential ingredient of the best music, and in particular to the best rock and roll, is passion."

4. Pulp: Different Class Peel gave Pulp their first session in 1981, when Jarvis Cocker was still at school. It took more than a decade for Pulp to reach a wider audience, but Peel remained a fan throughout their career. Cocker reciprocated, narrating Radio 1's tribute show after Peel's death. For the Observer, he wrote movingly of listening to Peel: "No matter how far-out and downright scary some of the music was, The Voice was always there to let you know everything was all right. 'Hey,' it seemed to be saying, 'just let it happen. You don't have to like all of this: just give it a chance.'"

5. Misty In Roots: Live At Counter Eurovision Peel's championing of reggae was criticised by hippies and then punks. But the more hostile the reaction, the more Peel would play it, and the juxtaposition of different genres of music on his show inspired groups such as the Clash to experiment with different styles. Misty were not even popular among some reggae purists, as they were based in Britain and not Jamaica. A quote from Live at the Counter Eurovision was included on the order of service at Peel's funeral: "When we trod this land, we walk for one reason ... to try to help another man think for himself. The music of our hearts is roots music, music which recalls history, because without the knowledge of your history, you cannot turn in your destiny: the music about the present, because if you are not conscious about the present, you're like a cabbage in this society."

6. Nirvana: Nevermind Peel championed all the Seattle bands years before Nevermind broke them into the mainstream. Nirvana recorded their first session with Peel in October 1989, and went on to record two more. Peel broadcast all three consecutively in 1994 after Kurt Cobain's death. He did not, as has sometimes been suggested, always disdain acts who later became successful, and always regarded Nirvana as "one of my bands".

7. The Smiths: The Smiths The sessions the Smiths recorded for Peel were better than those that became their first album. Guitarist Johnny Marr was quick to realise this, and so the band's Peel sessions formed the basis of the Smiths' second album, Hatful of Hollow. "We would try out new songs on the [Peel] sessions and these often were the definitive version," said Marr.

8. Neil Young: Arc Weld The major record labels gave up sending Peel any records or CDs long ago, so he would have to go and buy them himself. Each week he could be seen rummaging through the record racks of Berwick Street in Soho, London. This 1991 live album included a whole disc of feedback, a montage of guitar squall from various live shows that underlined Young's place as the granddaddy of grunge. Asked whether rock stars should call it a day when they get to a certain age, a 56-year-old Peel said in 1995: "There are some rather good old rock stars around, though they are in a minority. It would be a shame if Neil Young retired, for instance - he's virtually unique."

9. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Are You Experienced? Hendrix was one of the earliest artists to benefit from Peel's patronage, his album of BBC sessions providing an enthralling snapshot of the excitement he generated in Britain in the mid-60s. The only autographs Peel ever requested were those of Hendrix, blues singer Lightnin' Hopkins ... and Liverpool legends Billy Liddell and Bill Shankly.

10. Enzenzé: Wawali Bonané Generation Soukouss Zairian Wawali Bonané sang for many years in a band led by Tabu Ley Rochereau. In 1992, he recorded the album Enzenzé backed by members of Rochereau's group. Peel's long-time friend and fellow DJ Andy Kershaw recalls: "We got sent very little African music, but we would go to Stern's record shop near Warren Street tube station in London. Hearing Enzenzé was one of those perfect moments. It would send John daft. One track in particular, Bayanaya [Kershaw pauses to cue up the record and give me a blast down the phone] had this guitar solo by Popolipo, who was Congolese ... When I had my little lad in September 97, John played Bayanaya for Sonny on his programme and said it was 'the best start he could have in life'."

11. Pink Floyd: Piper At The Gates Of Dawn Peel and "the Pink Floyd" were regulars at the Roundhouse, and the band's first airplay came on the Perfumed Garden show in September 1967, where they performed tracks from their debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn. They performed a series of classic sessions for Peel in the late 60s and Peel clearly retained affection for the band. Dave Gilmour performs on the forthcoming all-star tribute single.

12. Dreadzone: Second Light Peel first saw Dreadzone in June 94 when they opened at Glastonbury. Crusty dance Dreadzone were signed to Alan McGee's Creation label at its zenith, and their featured vocalists included Alison Goldfrapp and Melanie Blatt, later of All Saints. Second Light dominated the 1995 Festive 50.

13 The Four Brothers: Makorokoto With a cover photograph taken by Andy Kershaw, this album represents a greatest hits by Zimbabwe's premier musical export. Sweet, uplifting guitars interweave with one another over rapid-fire beats to rapturous effect. The Four Brothers, who Peel regarded as "the best live band in the world", once performed in his back garden.

14. Dave Clarke: Dave Archive 1 One of the few DJs to have played a live session on the Peel show, Dave Clarke was also a huge fan of Peel's. Archive 1, his debut album, contains the house anthem Red - one of three tracks of that name released by Clarke.

15. Big Black: Songs About Fucking Steve Albini's late 80s band's ear-shreddingly brutal, mechanical garage rock contains a gripping version of Kraftwerk's The Model. Peel enthusiastically embraced all Albini's later incarnations, notably Shellac. But he is best known as a producer - his credits, which include Nirvana, Pixies, Wedding Present, read like a Peel alumni. Albini strips down his artists' sound to the bare minimum, eschewing studio effects in favour of revealing the band as they actually are. An aesthetic he shared with Peel, as he recalled in a recent interview: "John Peel said something that I thought was really profound. He said when he gets a record from somebody and he doesn't like it, he assumes that it's his problem and that the band would not have made that record if there wasn't something valuable about it."

16. PJ Harvey: Dry Harvey was championed by Peel from her first single Dress to last album Uh Huh Her. She recorded many sessions for the programme and was one of the few artists to have broadcast live from Peel Acres.

17. Richard and Linda Thompson: I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight Richard Thompson had played with Fairport Convention, part of the alternative folk scene of the late 60s. "Folk ballads provide the history of people traditionally without a voice," Thompson told the Guardian in 2003 - precisely what appealed to Peel. I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight became a staple of the Festive 50 until the advent of punk, but Peel continued to book Thompson for sessions.

18. Elastica: Elastica "Stutter" was one of the best tracks of 1993, according to Peel's "Peelennium" - a guide to the best tracks of the century. Peel avoided association with the notion of Britpop, remarking at the height of the Blur v Oasis hoo-hah that he'd not even heard Oasis - but in fact he admired several of the bands.

19. Hole: Live Through This The album that carried Courtney Love into the mainstream, a harrowing but confident work that came out in the wake of husband Kurt Cobain's death. Peel championed both Nirvana and Hole from the first singles in the late 80s. In 1994 Peel hailed Hole's set at Reading thus: "The band teetered on the edge of chaos, generating a tension which I cannot remember having felt before from any stage." As a teenager, Peel's daughter Alexandra was a big fan of Love, which caused Peel some fatherly consternation.

20. The Rolling Stones: The Rolling Stones The Stones' 1964 debut album, consisting solely of the R&B cover versions that comprised the band's stage set before Lennon and McCartney's success convinced Jagger and Richards to start writing their own songs. Standout tracks include I'm a King Bee - the basis for King Wasp, a homage by 1990s Peel favourites Add N to X. In a 1978 radio show, after playing the Stones' current single Miss You, Peel remarked that he wished they'd split up after (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction in 1965!